Newport's historic power substation is about to pulse with light in ways you've never seen before.
Melbourne-based light installation artist Meagan Streader takes over The Substation Galleries with new exhibition A Residual Pulse.
A Residual Pulse is a site-specific work built around The Substation itself: its bones, its history, its air.
Streader has mapped the building’s old airflow pathways, structural geometries and material imprints, translating them into light, flicker and suspended form. Lines of illumination stretch across multiple galleries, while hanging sculptures echo the architectural frames and air currents that once moved through the building’s ventilation systems.
The result is a building that feels like it’s breathing, an environment where the history of the space becomes something you can actually feel, not just read about on a plaque.
A Residual Pulse – The Substation
- Opening night: Thursday 21 May, 6pm, free entry
- Exhibition runs: 21 May – 22 August
- Galleries open Wednesday – Saturday, 11am – 5pm
- The Substation, Newport
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Streader is a contemporary artist whose practice pushes light into new territory, using it to reorient how people relate to the architecture around them.
She’s previously shown work at the National Gallery of Victoria (Melbourne Now, 2023), Carriageworks, Melbourne Design Week, Dark Mofo and the Amsterdam Light Festival, among others.
A Residual Pulse marks the Australian premiere of the work, and given The Substation’s industrial bones, it’s hard to imagine a more fitting home for it.
The 21 May opening night also sees the Victorian premiere of Margaret and the Grey Mare, a video opera installation, alongside Nicole Chui’s outdoor billboard gallery Grassroots Never Dies, Worldwide, a women’s-sports-inspired work shown in The Substation’s outdoor Billboards.
It’s a big night out in Newport.
Curated by Nuala Furtado, the exhibition runs from 21 May through to 22 August, with an opening night on 21 May from 6pm. Entry to the exhibition is free.
For more information, head here.
